Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2011 11:51 amPosts: 6025Location: United States of New England

i had a good season last year with some kale plants i put in my garden.when winter came i kinda didnt do anything with them and left them out there.i heard somewhere that in some regions kale can come back the following year.i didnt think New England was one of those places but we had a super mild winter.

so my kale plants from last year are still out there. they do not appear to be dead. here is a picture of what they look like now. what should i do? should i rip them out? are they going to regrow this year?

i'd scratch up the area around them, give em some love and let them grow. they are biennials if i remember correctly, and before you know it they will bolt and the greens will be bitter. until then, you can get some decent smaller leaves off them.

My neighbor's kale is coming up too! I had no idea they could do that, I totally ripped up the dead stems.

_________________"The Tree is His Penis"

The tree is his penis // it's very exciting // when held up to his mouth // the lights are all lighting // his eyes start a-bulging // in unbridled glee // the tree is his penis // its beauty, effulgent -amandabear

so it kinda sounds like you're saying maybe they will grow and i might get some small leaves off them??i might just rip them out and compost them in favor of some new plants.

yes, depending on your weather you might get bigger or smaller leaves before it gets warm and they bolt. considering how the weather has been so weird, you might plant new ones. i personally would wait til the official last-potential-frost date before ripping them all out, but i am botanically conservative.

This is the best season for kale!!!!! The new growth will be very tasty - not bitter - at least in the mild spring weather in the PNW. And once they start sending up flowering shoots, harvest before the buds open for fabulous, fabulous "rapini." They're like mini broccolis but much sweeter. And they'll keep sending out new shoots; I get huge, huge harvests of them, but much of my overwintered kale is a lot bigger than yours.

I usually rip them out in late May, or earlier if they get infested with aphids. And then I replace them with warm season crops or stuff for fall harvest, like beets or carrots.

_________________Formerly Kaleicious. I still love kale, but no more than lots of other garden greens too! Orach is currently my favorite.

That's what I'd do, but you can still pick off any leaves on the flowering shoots first. Although.... I have two friends who have been severely cutting back their kale each year, basically rejuvenating them, and they're now in their 4th year.

_________________Formerly Kaleicious. I still love kale, but no more than lots of other garden greens too! Orach is currently my favorite.

Is it too late to plant kale? I know frost makes it sweeter, but I impulse bought seeds when I found something perfect to plant leafy something in. Should I just hold onto them until the fall?

_________________"The Tree is His Penis"

The tree is his penis // it's very exciting // when held up to his mouth // the lights are all lighting // his eyes start a-bulging // in unbridled glee // the tree is his penis // its beauty, effulgent -amandabear